Cult of Hockey Game Day #42 - Suddenly the Edmonton Oilers 2018-19 season hangs in the balance: 9 Things

Look. Teams lose all of the time. It’s a game with just two sides. As a result the percentages will often just work against you.

But it’s quite another thing when a team just fails to show up at a juncture when and where it was absolutely necessary to do so. And against an opposition which the numbers told us was the worst team in the league. Well, not so fast…

The 4-0 result from the Edmonton Oilers Saturday turns today’s tilt against the Anaheim Ducks into one of vital importance.

The difference is, it should have been a massive opportunity.

Instead, it’s getting close to self-preservation.

9 Things

9. So…have those of you absolutely convinced that Todd McLellan was the problem with these Edmonton Oilers admitted that you were wrong yet?

8. The Oilers season went off the rails the day both Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell hit the Injured Reserve list. Both players have been sorely missed. Russell is back tonight. Klefbom is ahead of schedule and could return before February. Too late?

7. Caleb Jones made a bad read on the 1-0 Saturday. That’ll happen when you play rookie D in the NHL. I was more impressed that Jones put it behind him quickly, and settled down considerably after that. That’s a tough thing to teach a young player.

6. Maybe the most painful thing about the performance Saturday night in Los Angeles? It wasted a precious game in hand that the Oilers had on the team that they are chasing for a wildcard spot and play tonight: The Anaheim Ducks.

5. Or was it that the fact that the two defencemen Peter Chiarelli brought in to shore up the Oilers injury-riddled blue-line were particularly awful. I still think Alex Petrovic will come around. But I said at the time that I wasn’t sure Brandon Manning was that much better than Kevin Gravel. Gravel was certainly the better of the 2 on Saturday.

4. Or was it that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were left on their own to create offence yet again? The Edmonton Oilers only mustered 16 shots Saturday. Exactly half of them, eight, came from the forward ranks. 7 of the 8 came from Connor (4), Leon (2) and The Nuge (1). The other nine forwards combined for just 1 (Jujhar Khaira).

3. The starting goaltender in Anaheim will be an interesting call. Mikko Koskinen was chased by the Kings allowing 3 goals in just 8 shots in 13:57. But he was abandoned on all of them. Cam Talbot was quite good in relief and kept it close but to no avail. Koskinen will be fresher and has been better over-all this season. Or do you trust Talbot, the guy who finally put a few solid periods back-to-back for the first time in a while?

2. I am more than a little miffed that the NHL did not name Leon Draisaitl to the Pacific Division All Star team. He’s on pace for a 100 point season. But the cold, hard truth is that the league isn’t the only one to blame. If the Oilers were a playoff team Draisaitl would be “in”. So is the architect of the roster in fact to blame for his exclusion? His teammates? Or maybe its a bit of both? Time for all to look in the mirror. Guilt can be a good motivator.

1. A lot has been made of the Edmonton Oilers lack of secondary scoring. And rightfully so. To some extent young players such as Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto get a pass because they are kids. They have no track record to live up to even though you need them to show up at some point. However as for a number of the veterans? Here are shooting percentages from 5 of them. The first number is their career SH%, the second is this year’s number: Tobias Rieder (7.9, 0.0), Milan Lucic (13.4, 2.5), Ryan Spooner (8.3, 4.3), Zack Kassian (10.2, 4.4) and Kyle Brodziak (10.4, 5.4).

None of them were suppose to lead the team in scoring or even be Top-3. But they also weren’t supposed to be this.

Confirmed Edmonton Oilers Lines & Pairings

TALBOT

KHAIRA – McDAVID – KASSIAN

JONES – LARSSON

RIEDER – DRAISAITL –

NURSE – *RUSSELL

LUCIC – NUGENT-HOPKINS – PULJUJARVI

GRAVEL – PETROVIC

GAMBARDELLA – BRODZIAK – RATTIE

SCRATCHES: KOSKINEN (back-up), MANNING, BENNING, SPOONER.

*Kris Russell was activated from IR at about 1:30pm MST, and Kailer Yamamoto was placed on IR with a suspected shoulder issue.

The game starts at 6:00pm MST.

Also, a post-script on Peter Chiarelli’s Petrovic-Wideman deal: Wideman was waived by the Florida Panthers Sunday morning. As my Cult of Hockey colleague Bruce McCurdy points out, the first 3 D-men brought in after the Andrej Sekera injury (Jakub Jerabek, Jason Garrison, Wideman) were all then traded by the Oilers and subsequently waived by the teams they were traded to.

This Week's Flyers

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